The Middle School Mom's Survival Guide

From Kristin Hensley and Jen Smedley, the duo behind #IMomSoHard, comes a hilarious, heartfelt guide to navigating the chaos of raising middle schoolers while experiencing the wild ride of midlife—a much-needed survival guide for every mom who’s suddenly wondering “what the hell is happening?”

Welcome to Kristin Hensley and Jen Smedley’s unfiltered, hilarious guide to the next stage of motherhood. You thought you were in the trenches when your kids were toddlers? That was the kiddie pool. Now things are getting real.

In The Middle School Mom’s Survival Guide, the viral sensations behind the #IMomSoHard web series are back to tackle the beautiful, messy, and often absurd collision of raising middle schoolers while your own body stages a hormonal rebellion.

Kristin and Jen thought they’d hit their stride. They’d survived the baby years, built a massive online community of millions by sharing their parenting fails, and even wrote a New York Times bestselling book about those early years. Then midlife crashed the party like an uninvited, sweaty uncle—with hot flashes, unrelenting chin hair, itchy skin, brain fog, constant irritability, and a body that suddenly seems determined to make every situation more complicated—just as their kids transformed into emotional, eye-rolling roommates who communicate primarily through “bruh,” “crashing out,” and achingly slow eye rolls.

In the book, they get real about marriage, parenting through text messages, spending hours in the car, handing your kid a smartphone, navigating changing friendships and social pressures, dealing with aging parents, and learning to let go while still somehow staying in charge.

If you’re tired of pretending to have it all together, The Middle School Mom’s Survival Guide is a candid, laugh-out-loud look at the years nobody warns you about. Equal parts survival guide and equal parts hilarious, this book gives women what they need, A BREAK.